Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn was part of a group of men shouting insults at gay passers-by outside a Columbus bar early on New Year's Day, according to a 9-1-1 call made to police.

The call at 2:35 a.m. came from Seth Harris, who reported that he encountered the group in front of La Fogata Grill at 790 North High St. The Mexican restaurant is next door to the Union Cafe Bar + Food, one of Columbus' most popular gay bars in the gay-friendly Short North neighborhood.

Hear the 9-1-1 call:

On the 9-1-1 call, Harris said that "Brady Quinn from the Browns" was "trying to cause a fight." Harris told the operator, "I just walked outside and he exchanged many profanities with me and called me a faggot, of course."

Reached Monday by The Plain Dealer, Harris confirmed that Quinn was the person who used the slur.

"I knew who it was," he said. "It wasn't just directed at me, there were other people around, too."

He said Quinn was with a "big group" of friends numbering perhaps 10, and that the quarterback "wasn't as involved as" others were in stirring up trouble. "He was standing back and letting his friends do most of it," Harris said.

On the call, Harris told police that "this has been going on all night and nobody has stopped anything."

Browns spokesman Bill Bonsiewicz had no comment. On Monday afternoon, Bonsiewicz said Quinn was training "out west" and said he had left messages for the quarterback and his agent, Tom Condon. By Tuesday evening, no response had been received.

Condon did not respond to a pair of e-mails requesting comment on the allegations made against the second-year quarterback from the Columbus area. The messages were sent after Condon's office advised that e-mail was the best way to contact the super-agent.

Quinn served as the Browns backup quarterback throughout 2007 and is a former first-round draft pick hailed as the team's savior at the quarterback position. A star player in college for Notre Dame and at Dublin Coffman High School outside Columbus, Quinn has parlayed his good looks and wholesome image into several lucrative national endorsement contracts.

On the 9-1-1 call, Harris told police that he feared for his safety.

"I'm not going to wait for police because it's going to turn ugly," Harris said. "They are being very violent and I probably should get away."

A Columbus police spokeswoman said officers arrived several minutes after Harris' call and found Quinn in the midst of an argument with 32-year-old Jason Thompson.

"I don't believe there were any punches being thrown -- it was more verbal than anything," said Columbus police spokeswoman Amanda Ford.

"When we got there, he was very cooperative and just stopped," Ford said of Quinn's encounter with police. "I think his friends were like, 'Let's get out of here.' "

However, police arrested Thompson when "he wouldn't back down and turned on officers," Ford said.

Additional police officers were called to help clear the scene, Ford said.

"From what I remember about it, there were so many people milling around in the parking lot that they called for more cars just so they could get things under control," she said.

Police arrested Thompson for disorderly conduct for failing to leave. His attorney, Joe Landusky, said that Thompson pleaded guilty to a minor misdemeanor and was given a suspended fine. Police say in the Thompson arrest report that two separate fights took place. Along with the Thompson fracas, the other confrontation appears to have involved Thompson's friend, Brian Dunfee.

Dunfee reported later to police that he suffered minor injuries to his left knee and right elbow when he was thrown to the ground by a 6-foot white man with brown hair, a police report says. Police labeled the attack on Dunfee as an "anti-male homosexual" hate crime.

La Fogata Grill owner Jeff Rinehart said Quinn's group, which he said included about a dozen people -- half men, half women -- did not cause any problems while drinking inside his restaurant on New Year's Eve.

"The only issue was trying to get everyone's checks figured out," he said.

Landusky, who represents Thompson and Dunfee, said his clients encountered Quinn's group outside La Fogata Grill. Landusky said Dunfee isn't sure who threw him to the ground.

"In all fairness to what the truth is, I don't know if Brady Quinn himself had anything to do with" the injuries, Landusky said. "It might have just been people he was with."

Landusky said Thompson was "trying to protect his friend" when he was arrested.

The head of a Columbus gay and lesbian anti-violence group called the report of Quinn using a slur "very distressing."

"That person is in theory a role model for so many people," said Gloria McCauley, executive director of the Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Organization. "To have one of our well-known people engage in behavior that I consider hateful saddens me. We obviously need to do a lot more education."

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